News

Ups And Downs For World Superbike Pair

July 29, 2009

Makoto Tamada recorded a fine top ten finish in race one at Brno, but for both Makoto and his team-mate Broc Parkes, raceday was both kind and sometimes less than kind.

In his comeback ride after injury, Tamada was running in the top seven for the majority of race one, but after his rear tire lost traction near the end, he dropped back to a still-creditable top ten placing. Parkes was 12th in race one, recovering from a start position back on the fifth row. Tamada had qualified 11th.

Makoto went out of race two after tangling with another rider, almost saving the crash as he ran onto the trackside gravel. He re-broke his recently healed finger in his fall, meaning that the five week gap until the next race in Germany gives him some welcome time to recover.

Parkes paid a price for a slow start off the line in race two, but was encouraged that the changes he made to his machine after race one had a positive effect.

In the title chase Parkes is 18th on 31 points, Tamada 27th despite missing many rounds through injury.

Makoto Tamada: “I felt a lot more confident on the Ninja ZX-10R this weekend as the machine was working really well. We made some big improvements with the suspension and swing arm and we had good engine power. I was running in the top ten for the majority of sessions and was very happy to qualify on the third row and make it into Superpole. In race one I didn’t have such a great start but I was able to move up and battle for seventh before I ran out of rear grip and had to finish in tenth. Race two was a major disappointment as I was hit by another rider on lap three and broke my middle finger again from the previous injury and wasn’t able to finish the race.”

Broc Parkes: “It’s been an up-and-down weekend as the bike was working really well here on Friday but I had two crashes yesterday which set us back in our bike set-up and made us miss out on moving up the grid during Superpole. Starting that far back is always hard and I didn’t get a good start in race one, so to end up twelfth was a bit of luck due to a few crashes and drop-outs at the front. Race two I didn’t get a good start again which was a shame as we had much better lap times and rear grip which would have put us in the top ten had we qualified better. Overall I feel disappointed things didn’t work out as well as we’d hoped as we could have been a definite top ten here in Brno for both races.”